Awakening the Earth's Fire
by Guillaume HJ
Summary: Gary and Misty, targeted by a serial killer and running for their life? Why would someone go out to slaughter gym leaders? Who is the mysterious new leader of Team Rocket, whom Gary seems allied with? And why is he, of all people, helping them?
1.

"Attention ladies and gentleman, we have now arrived at Viridian international, airport." The voice blared through the loudspeakers of the plane that flew regularly form Cerulean to Viridian. Misty Williams broke out of her reverie to take a look around. 

It was definitely the good old Viridian, the city that had seen so much of her adventures years ago - how many, eight? - back when she had been travelling along with Ash. Idly, she wondered what he had become. They had all split way years ago, and had soon lost sight of each other, except her and Brock, who met from time to time on League business.

Stepping out of the plane, she made her way out of the checkpoints, then picked up her packs before walking downstair, to the main entrance.

The title on a brand new newspaper, which had just been put in the vendor machine , caught her attention.

"GYM LEADER BLAINE THOMAS DIES IN GYM FIRE"

Producing from her pocket the two quarters needed to pay, she inserted them in the machine, and withdrew the gray paper from it. Immediately, she scanned the article for relevant information.

"The Gym leader of Cinnabar died when his old gym caught fire early last night..." She read on, trying to find if there was anything suspicious.

"According to the local investigation team, this death would be accidental, as there are no clues at all of a criminal act. This is the third death of a gym leader in little less than two months. Jonathan Surge's radio fell in his bath two months ago, and just four weeks ago Koga Temitsu died in hospital from an indigestion. The league is expected to assemble to select a new gym leader soon..." the article went on.

"Misty!" A familiar voice yelled, and a young man, about her age, with spikey brown hair approached. Gary Oak, the Viridian gym leader. They had long been enemies back in the days where she had travelled with Ash, but a few years of being the two "juvenile youngsters" of the league council had made them friends as they were forced to stand together against the rest of the gym leaders.

"You saw the news." There was no question as he pointed to the rolled newspaper.

"Yeah." She shrugged. Blaine had never been a close friend, or a friend at all, she had barely even cared about him.

"What do you think of it?"

"We'll have to pick someone else. What else?"

He stared at her, dumbfounded. "Misty, that's five gym leaders down in the last two months?"

"Five? " She stared incredulously. "You mean three."

"Five. Falkner and Chuck bought it too." He corrected. She froze. She had not heard the news from Johto - though it wasn't that surprising, she had been away on vacation until recently, and had only heard about the other two death from chats with one of her sister, who intensely hated the Johto league.

"How?" She asked in a little, weak voice.

"How else? Falkner fell from high, very high when his chopper broke down. Chuck was ambushed by a band of thieves who beat him up and stole all he had. He died in the hospital from inner bleeding."

"What do you mean..." she asked slowly, wondering what he was about to say, almost afraid she knew. "What do you mean, how else?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He laughed, a short, bitter laugh. "Misty, don't you see? How did they all die?"

"Falkner couldn't fly. Chuck was beaten up. Surge was shocked, Blained roasted alive. Koga ate bad food."

"Yeah. Falkner couldn't fly. Chuck was beaten in a fight. Surge got a massgive electrical - no pun intended - surge. Blaine was caught in a fire. And Koga was poisoned. Don't you get it?"

She nodded, very slowly. "In what order did they die?" She asked in a weak voice. 

"Surge. Then Falkner. Then Koga, Then Chuck. And now Blaine. Each with two weeks interval. But now...I think whoever's doing it is going to pick up the pace. No, actually I'm pretty sure they are picking up the pace."

"What make you think that?"

"Sabrina. I talked to her twice today. She's upset because a few times already she found herself doing things without understanding how or why she was doing them. Quoting her, "it was as if I was being controlled"." 

"Someone's out to get us all." Misty breathed. A terrible fear rose within her chest, holding her. "Why?"

"I don't know. But whoever it is, they have a sense of humor. Which I don't find funny at all."

Misty shuddered Someone...out to kill the gym leaders? It felt...unreal. What could they possibly have done for someone to desire their death?

"We need help..." Gary was saying.

"We need..." She hesitated, frozen, unable to think very clearly. "Warn them."

"They won't listen. It's us we're talking about." Bitter words - and words all too true. The council did not trust them, had never trusted them. Too young, they said.

"Then what? Who can help?"

"I know someone. An old friend." Gary smiled. "Though he might object to my use of that term. But we need to get moving in a hurry I think."

"Why so?" She looked at him, puzzled.

"Call it an hunch. I think, as I said, that the pace will pick up. A lot."

"Yeah..." A figment of memory came back to her "Crap, got another plane to catch..."

"Skit it Misty. Don't get on that plane." His voice was cold, a whip-like order.

"Why?" 

"Look, don't ask me to tell you why, I don't know why. I just know I'd rather keep the one gym leader who'll believe me alive."

Helplessly, she looked about. What was happening to her life? She had been very happy with things, and now Gary had to come in and tell her these stories...she didn't want to believe in, could not bring herself to believe in.

But on the other hand, she couldn't take the risk not to trust him.

"All right. I'll cancel the flight."

"Don't. If I'm right, it might be better if everyone think you dead. That way they won't target you."

Slowly, nodding, she stood up. Things were going too fast, she needed time to think. 

"When can we get to that friend of yours?" She asked feebly.

"Soon. We'll just have to drive to my gym and pick up my chopper there. It's about the only way to get there."

"All right." Another shiver, up and down her spine.

Gary's car was comfortable, and moved smoothly over the well-built road of the Viridian highway system. It wasn't the fastest way to his gym however, and Misty felt suspicions creeping up....

"Where are we going?" She couldn't help the accusing tone that slipped in her voice.

"My gym. I don't feel comfortable moving too close to the old mines, which are on the other way to my gym. Too close to a death-by-ground-element possibility for my liking." He answered, his voice elsewhere.

Even elongated as it was, the trip to his gym was barely under twenty minutes, and soon they were on the roof. 

"We should be fairly well protected where we are going. It's probably one of the most impregnable stronghold on earth. So we'll stay there for a while and plan."

Misty, the events of the last few hours settling over her, could only nod numbly, stepping in the second seat of the small two-places helicopter. Soon they were airborne, flying away toward the range of the silver mountains.

As soon as he could free one hand from the piloting, Gary activated the radio equipment, but instead of switching to standard flight control frequencies, he switched toward the commercial ones, turning the selectors until he ran in a station broadcasting a news bulletin.

"What are you expecting in the news?" Misty asked, feeling her mind slowly settling in place. Safe, they'd be safe once the helicopter was landed.

"It's not what I'm expecting. It's what I'm hoping not to hear." Bleak words, bleak thoughts. 

"...This is just in!" The news reporter blared through the speakers. "Gym Leader Sabrina Stevens of Saffron has commited suicide..."

"And that's sixth. Guess I didn't hope enough." His eyes were cold. "We'll find who's doing it. We'll find them, and pay them back."

Misty didn't hear him. She was now clutching her knees, shivering uncontrollably. The threat was becoming so much more direct, so much more powerful...she would rather have been first killed than feel the growing tension, the ever-present fear...

The mountains came clover, looming larger ahead. Even the prospect of hiding there, of being safe - could she ever be safe - in whatever haven Gary had in mind no longer sounded so good as it once had. They would find her, they would find them both. And there, they'd...

They'd die. Gary, probably buried alive, her drowned. Yes, that's how she would die, in water, and unable to get out, trapped there, feeling her life ebbing away, unable to breath, doomed without escape...she knew it, she just knew it...

A shiver, another one, up and down her spine. Doomed, yes, they were doomed. Her eyes flew about, like those of a trapped prey looked for a way out, finding none. 

"Calm down Misty. I'm trusting our safety to a lot more than just a good hiding place." A smile flickered across Gary's face again. "A lot more."

A great cliff roared toward them, and, surprisingly, Gary did not change course to go around it. That's it. They had sabotaged the commands to kill him. Crashing in a cliff would be a ground death, and they had no idea she was aboard, or else there was a river running down below for her to end her life in...

A gaping maw opened in the cliff as the helicopter flew closer, as it landed, great rock-painted steel doors opening to let the dwarfed machine in.

Black-uniformed men and women rushed around the helicopter, pulling it inside the well-lit cave. The doors closed behind. Misty took a brief look at the men...their black uniforms were too familiar to some she knew very well, too well...the only good thing was, there was no trace of the traditional red R.

"Mister Oak. The leader said you'd come." One of the men stepped forward. "He didn't mention companions though."

"It was the only thing I could do." Gary replied rather curtly as Misty's eyes flew around again. She felt trapped, trapped, trapped...no escape...

"All right." The voice, so cold...as if he would bring them to their death...yes, he would, she knew he would...

The halls of the secret base were well-lit again, but to her they felt like the darkest place on earth. Her life would end there. It was all over.

A door opened before them. A man, wearing a black suit, was peering out through a large window, facing away from the door. A desk stood between him and her, them. The man had a glass of water in hand.

"Gary." The voice was haunting, she had heard it before. "I'm glad you made it safely. And Misty...it's a pleasure to see you again."

She had no time to wonder how he had found her out as he turned. There, emblazoned on his left pocket, over his heart. The crimson R, the rocket insignia. She felt herself falling, the world around her losing all substance as she fainted.


	2. 

Gary looked at the fainted Misty.  
  
"Let her sleep for a while." The dark-haired man advised him.  
  
"Yeah, I guess that's for best. Anything new happening."  
  
"Since Sabrina died? No, not much new. At least as for the Gym leaders dying, if you consider only that." He drew a remote control from his pocket, and aimed it at the giant screen in the back of the room. A map of the world appeared, from which Gary knew one could use the various satellite of Team Rocket to get a photography of any given spot less than a day old.  
  
"And you consider more?" He phrased the question carefully. His friend had changed a bit, growing more secretive since he had taken command of Team Rocket.  
  
"I work with the basic assumption that everything unusual is linked. If I can't find the link, then I start thinking about whether or not there is a link."  
  
"In other words, you play it safe." Again, Gary nodded.  
  
"Yes. Care for anything to drink, old friend?"  
  
"I'll take a glass of water." He smiled. "It's been a while Ash."  
  
"It has. But we've both had our jobs, haven't we?" The dark-haired twenty years old leader of Team Rocket shook his head. "You, trying to keep the league from going haywire, me, trying to keep Team Rocket from going back to Giovanni's ways."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
It had been what, four years ago already? They had been given no choice then, fight against Team Rocket to the bitter end or die. Ash's mother had already been killed, as well as Gary's own sister, and they hadn't dared to ask any of their friends to help in fear of losing them. Of course, Giovanni could have ordered these friends killed anyway, but that hadn't occurred to them. The only help they had received overall had been from a pair of Rocket agents who had decided to side against their boss.  
  
Somehow, against all odds, it had been enough.  
  
Somehow, it had shattered their lives, too. Gary had rapidly recovered, ascending to the title of Viridian gym leader with little opposition, as many believed Giovanni was not truly dead and would not dare to take the task of Gym leader while he might still be around to take revenge of them. Knowing what Giovanni's revenge was like, it was not exactly a surprise that they would have felt that way.  
  
Ash had not even been given the chance to return to normal. Or perhaps he had, but the cost of doing so as they had been told was too high to consider it. Team Rocket could not be disbanded, and with Giovanni dead a new leader would rise from the ranks and shape the Team in his image - an image of evil, more than probably, as it would take a great deal of ruthlessness to take command.  
  
But if instead the one who had defeated Giovanni in single combat against all odds was the one who took command, then he would be accepted, because the rules of Team Rocket were set to respect strength first of all. And if that one was Ash, he would be able to shape the Rocket in his image - give them a new goal, new ways.  
  
Given Ash's personality, no one who knew him and knew of the events taking place instead of the underground headquarter had been surprised by his choice.  
  
"What are those strange events that might be linked?" He turned his mind back to present matters.  
  
"Lots of troops movement. Johto and Kanto are preparing for war." The answer was short, to the point - and utterly chilling. There had been no war in the region for years, but now it seemed as if the two countries were getting ready for battle...  
  
And who else could they fight against, but each other?  
  
"How so?" He felt his voice going weak.  
  
"Three missile cruisers - State of Saffron, State of Lavender and State of Cerulean left Vermillion just yesterday to take station of the Cinnabar coast. The sixth armor division moved west, and two armor divisions are apparently getting ready to move as well. The subs are on the move as well, and the Marple is on the move."  
  
As Ash reported the events, Gary watched, stunned. The league would have been consulted normally for such troop movements...what was happening now?  
  
"I didn't hear the least bit of that." He shook his head, puzzled, worried. "I mean, that..."  
  
"Executive order. Direct command from president Blackthorn to all units, bypassing standard command circuitry. Lance knows something we don't." That explained much, but wasn't the Aircraft Carrier Marple outside of the units available to receive such executive orders? Unless a Defense alert has been released...which could be done with an executive order...  
  
"Look that way, doesn't it? What's happening in Johto?"  
  
"The submarine docks at Kogane are empty as of two hours ago. We have a satellite that's supposed to give a flyby to the two main fleet bases at Asagi and Kikyou. I don't think there'll be much to see there, though. Last we have the fleet - those units not already at sea - was getting ready to sail."  
  
"That's not good. What do you make of it?"  
  
"Both sides think the other is going to attack. I think there is unreleased information about the death of the gym leaders. Information that put the blame on the other side."  
  
Gary only nodded silently. It made sense that Lance would keep that much secret for now, especially if it was unconfirmed. The fewer people that knew of such suspicions, the fewer that would see a reason for war with Johto, and, even more important, the fewer that would ask for it. If war could be avoided, it was for the better. 


	3. 

Focusing his mind on the slowly burning candle sitting in the middle of the wooden table, the man calmly closed his eyes. His blond hair held behind his head by a headband, he slowly let his spirit drift, the details, sounds, smells of the waking world vanishing as a second one opened to him, great gates slowly swinging open to reveal the waiting wonders.  
  
There was no true "land" or "sky" or "sea" in this new world, only a great expense of light-filled void, were one could feel the nearby presence of a hundred thousand spirit, a void in the physical sense that there was no ground, no up nor down, but not a void to the senses.  
  
Spirals of red, explosions of green, shimmering spheres of light, blue lines criss-crossing all around throughout the expanse of the spirit world. The smell of rose, of fresh-baked bread, all the greatest perfume in the universe could be sensed in turn by his nose, if he would but try to sense them. The feeling of the emptiness against his skin, for indeed there was one, was as that of delicate silk or soft velvet. To his ears sore from the sickening noise of modern life, the perfectly natural melody of a mountain spring slowly cascading down a slope accompanied by the soft chirping of a bird.  
  
The spirit world was the most restful place one could imagine, one where all sense would be contented, one were there was no thought about tomorrow, or yesterday, no regret, no worries - only enjoyment of the present moment. Only a few could reach it, even among those who claimed to be mediums, but the young man was most skilled of them all at it.  
  
Perhaps it was that eight years of closeness with his ghost had robbed him of part his humanity, making him part spirit himself. Some channelers pretended that their grandparents, or further removed ancestors, had become ghosts themselves from close association with the pokemon that served them.  
  
Of course, as much as he believed in a certain transfer of properties, Moty always had and always would discount these tales as wild stories. He was human, and nothing short of death would succeed in making him anything else.  
  
In this place, the prospect of death was not one he viewed with any difficulty. It would come, as it came for all human, and his spirit would go on, separated forever from his body - as it was right now. If with death came permanent presence in the realm of spirits, then he would welcome it with open arms.  
  
After all, why should he be bound to the mortal flesh by the blood-red cord that seemed to come from where he was, always visible at the edge of his sight, linking his immortal soul with his mortal body? He had no need for the fragile envelope of flesh his parents had seen fit to grant him.  
  
Tendrils of shadow snaked their way up the blood red-cord, and he smiled, watching the newest display of all take place. This was a first, normally all was color except when there was nothing, now for the first time there was a darkness that was not the absence of light.  
  
The tendrils seemed to grip the cord, to hold it tightly, to struggle with it. Morty felt jerked around as the cord moved - again, new sensations, almost...pain? Pain, in this realm? How could it be? There was only pleasure and rest among the immortals, all channelers knew...  
  
Yet somehow, he was meeting pain among those who never suffered it, in a place where he should never have suffered it. As the dark hand continued to shake the cord tightly, he felt as if a thousand searing knives were driven deep into his flesh. There was no understanding the change of fate ; such things had no room happening, made no sense...  
  
With one last effort, the hands broke his cord, and the pain vanished - and with it all awareness of his physical body. And, without awareness of it, he could never hope to find it again, would remain forever trapped in the spirit realm.  
  
He smiled softly. Perhaps whoever had just struck him had hoped to make him suffer in one way or another, but whatever it was they had been trying to do, they had failed. He had exactly what he had wanted, and left nothing of importance behind.  
  
_________________________________  
  
"Slept well?" A voice cheerful asked as Misty stepped out of her room. The sun had long since crossed the horizon, already nearing its highest station.  
  
"Not really," she yawned, one hand before her mouth as she extended the other arm "but then again, that's no surprise isn't it?" She gave a weak smile. Ash, walking in the corridor toward her, smiled back, a somewhat stronger smile. He wore, she noticed, much the same clothes as the previous day, and bulges under his long suit on both sides, at the level of the belt, indicated that he certainly would get himself involved in the fighting if he saw any point to it.  
  
"Thanks for giving us a place to stay." She whispered. The idea of how much they owed to him had not come to her until well into the night, when she had awakened from yet another endless nightmare, but she had certainly noted down in her somewhat sleepy mind to thank him as soon as she had an occasion. It was somewhat surprising that she had immediately remembered.  
  
"You're welcome. Admittedly, I have my own reasons to do this. I want to find why someone wants the Gym Leaders dead and I'm afraid I won't agree with that reason, so I'd rather sae all those I can save right now.  
  
"Makes sense to me." She had hoped that their old friendship had had to do something to do with me rather than cold calculations, but apparently, Ash had changed beyond such things...He was, even though he tried to act friendly, colder, more distant, if only slightly. She sighed, wondering for the briefest of moment if he was really on their side - but no, he was.  
  
"What's wrong?" So, he had noticed her silence. She could not, of course, tell him she suspected him.  
  
"Not much. Just thinking about those murders." She shivered. She shouldn't have used them to cover up her real source of worries, but somehow, it has been the first idea to come to her mind - perhaps not much of a surprise.  
  
"Don't worry yourself about that. You're safe here, and we're covering everything up. I've got teams for whatever clues we can hope to find, working with each of the murders."  
  
"I hope that's going to be enough."  
  
They were silent for a while more, an uneasy silence brought about by the fact that there was not much else to say about the murders, that she did not want to bring up the past, and how they had so completely lost contact with each other at the noon of a promising friendship. She contented herself with following him through the base, her mind studiously blank to avoid thoughts of the attacks.  
  
With a clash, the great doors of the hall opened up, revealing a series of table. Gary was at one toward the back, separated from the others by a great piece of glass, surelevated. "My person table." Ash explained, showing her the way, and soon they were sitting down.  
  
"I think Gary's already ordered. He seemed to know what you like." Was it a hint of curiosity in his voice? She couldn't tell.  
  
"We're friends. So yeah, he know what I like and what I don't." It was the complete truth, regardless of what the scandal-hunters of Indigo City thought, always branding their friendship as much more than it was. Doubtless Ash had heard of the articles, doubtless also he knew just how far these newspaper could be trusted.  
  
"That's what I thought." Her old friend nodded absently as he sat down, earning a glance and no more from the rival of his traveling days.  
  
The plates were served rapidly, and Misty found herself eating ravenously the food before her. She had not eaten much the day before, not after breakfast, and her stomach was more than happy to renew an old acquaintance with good and plentiful food.  
  
A rocket clad in the usual black uniform walked up to Ash, handing him a piece of paper. His dark eyes quickly covered the writing, then he crumpled it, his face unreadable. Gary glanced at it a moment, his eyes opening a bit wider, his mouth as well, then returned to a mask of impassivity. Though she suspected something was afoot and what it could be, Misty purposefully shrugged off the events as she finished eating. It was only once they were done, leaving the table to head back through the hallways of the base that Gary spoke.  
  
"Who?" The single word confirmed that he suspected the very same thing that she did, the worst thing she had feared.  
  
"Morty." The answer was just as swift as the question. "They found him dead without the slighest sign of any form of violence or such.  
  
"Really?" Gary started as Misty felt herself panicking once again. Yet another of them had fallen...one more, and no one had been able to do anything about it.  
  
"We need to do something..." She breathed slowly, forgetting all of her earlier conversation with Ash. She did not need logic, she needed action. - clear action, now.  
  
"Not much we can do right now." Gary was the first one to object. Obviously he had talked about things with Ash earlier, or else he would have been able to even pretend to be so informed as he was.  
  
Slowly, she sagged down against the wall of the hallway. Taking her head between her two hands, she just cried, letting the nervous strain flow away, or at least trying to. Yet, whatever she managed to evacuate came back as soon.  
  
"It's not fair..." She sobbed. "We're just going to die away, and there's nothing we can do about the assassin...we can only react, and that means he's halfway ahead of us every day." She saw it, understood it - there would be no stooping the wake of death by simply sending people to find clues that might or might not lead to understanding the identity of the murderer.  
  
Before she had the time to explain further to the other twos, a shock rocked the base. Within moments, Ash had a sleek black handgun held tightly in his right fist and was throwing another to Gary.  
  
"Make sure you two stay safe Gary. I'll go see what that was!" He was already halfway down the gray hallway on his black-clad legs when the last of the shout reached his friends.  
  
________________________________  
  
The communication center was filled with acrid gray smoke. It had not been a high-power or incendiary bomb, thankfully, but it had done enough damage as it was.  
  
"What happened?" He yelled out, still ready to fire at any perceived threat. There was a certain sense of safety in having the loaded pistol were he could easily use it.  
  
"A letter that we picked up at one of our cover-up address! It opened a bit after we checked it! No idea what kind of explosive it was!" The answer came from Jessie, yelling more, he suspected, from temporary deafness than for long-term  
  
"Who opened the letter?" The next question was perhaps far more crucial and worrisome. After all, it might mean the Lotus were readying themselves for a new assault.  
  
"Cassidy." There was not the slightest hint of satisfaction in Jessie's voice despite the bitter rivalry between the two. "We've found her already, she's dead."  
  
"Damn." She had once been an enemy, but now, more important was a senior member of the Team - which made her a member of the family, to an extent. Someone not to be messed with while they were around  
  
"There was also a message" The rocket officer handled the crap of paper diffidently, respectfully. There was no "twerp" traded from one to the other, not now, not with one of them lost. The piece of paper was simple, a simple trace of black on a darkened piece of paper, barely readable.  
  
[i] This is only a warning, thief[/i]  
  
"What do we do about it, boss?"  
  
"Get everyone ready, I want us at our best backup base tonight. And find me Gary and Misty, and keep a detachment of my personal guard near time in permanence. 


	4. 

Discarding his walking stick, Pryce stretched, smiling. It was a paying strategy to pose as a senile old man when it came to pokemon battling, but both the curved back, heavy glasses and walking stick would prove much of a deterrent to his favorite activity.  
  
The Shioran glacier was in the mountains, not far north of Mahogany, and had long been a great mountain climbing challenge. No one had ever made it to the top, and a heavy shroud of fog covered anything that may have been set beyond the wall of ever-present ice deep in the mountain.  
  
He rapidly put on his equipment, triple checking everything. The boots he wore were made just for mountain-climbing, steel hooks beneath allowing him to maintain his grip on the slipperiest surfaces. Today, he decided, was the day. He had attempted twice to climb the Shioran glacier, to see what was beyond, but both time had been repelled at some point.  
  
He thought for a moment, wondering what kind of forgotten animals would live there, forgotten by the moon and sun since eons forgotten. Aerodactyls, perhaps, or even more, rarer pokemon the like of which he had never seen? It was enough to make his face break in a vast smile of enthusiasm.  
  
"Let's get going." He smiled to himself, attacking the first part of the enormous cliff gleefully, digging in it for handholds when none were to be found. The going was actually rather easy for the first few hundred meters, stopping on the numerous narrow ledges to take some rest. By mid-day he had already reached halfway through the cliff, but the true challenge - the straight ledgeless eight hundred meters of cliff - remained ahead. He stopped, thinking things through. Climbing further now would be much of a risk to run, so he rapidly installed his lightweight yet warm and comfortable tent on the current ledge. It was quite cold already, but things would certainly get worse by the time he'd reach the end of the cliff.  
  
___________________________  
  
"Whoa, glad this one's over." The young man - twenty-two of age - dropped on a chair in the pokemon center in Torambro. The last two months spent in the following jungle had been long, away from civilization. He had volunteered of course to come here to help in their study on bugs, but it took nothing out of the lenght of time the whole project had required. He wiped his forehead.  
  
"I thought things would get cooler by the time we got out of the jungle." He pointed out.  
  
"Tsukushi?" His real japanesse name came easily to the lips of his colleague rather than his far better known nickname of Bugsy. "Are you alright?"  
  
"Yeah..." He hesitated, his voice bluring as he answered - among other things. "Well...not really, come to think of it..."  
  
"What's wrong?" A figure - he couldn't focus his eyes enough to find out more - reached out to catch him as he fell.  
  
"Who's that? I don't see really well...got an headache now..." The pain, coming all of a sudden, threatened to overload his poor nerves. He felt like he was exploding, sweat dripping down every part of his body even though he was shivering as if naked in the cold of winter.  
  
"Get him to the hospital!" Someone yelled. "He must have gotten some tropical disease in the jungle!"  
  
He felt hand rushing him outside - the blinding light that had to be that of the sun told him they were outside clearly enough. The racing footsteps thundered near his head - were they near his head? That would be too strange, it would mean he was on the ground, and he knew he wasn't.  
  
The doors of the hospital opened with a loud bang - too loud, like someone had just detonated an atom bomb near - no, inside - his head.  
  
A strange white shape looked at him, entirely too close, the hot breath creating ripples in the pools formed by his sweat. The shape...there was some red on it, he thought, though he couldn't be sure.  
  
"Take him to the operation block at once!" The order crashed around his ears, threatening to destroy his eardrums. He winced, feeling a shriek of pain in his body as he did so.  
  
________________________________  
  
"No. First we set up the new defenses, THEN the command center Jessie." Ash repeated, his voice stern  
  
"I'll now point out to our illustrious twerp-leader that the defense system need a command center to function properly." James smiled as Ash shook his head.  
  
"But if we set up the defenses now, they'll get online as soon as we can set the proper part of the command center up and running - and they are on top priority. Whereas if we do the whole command center first..." Normally, with most member of the team, he would simply have ordered and cut any opposition. But Jessie and James were close friends, and moreover had been among his earliest supporters during his campaign to bring down Giovanni. They were a special case.  
  
"Are Gary and Misty in a safe place?" He questionned next. There would be little point to setting up the best security systems.  
  
"I have a ring of Elite Agents protectiong them. The Black Talon." James reported rapidly, setting Ash at ease - if only a bit. The Black Talon were not only among the best agents the team had, but they had also been handpicked by James on the ground of personal loyalty to Ash himself. They, of all people, would be the best to keep Ash and Misty safe.  
  
The rocket agents busied themselves around the new headquarters, installing the numerous arrays of detection equipment, control systems and - of great importance as well - the defensive weaponry. Most of what they were putting in was extremely costly, extremely dangerous, and of course highly illegal, but none of these proved much of a problem for an organization with the vast networks of contacts and undercover agents that Team Rocket had.  
  
"Who's on the field investigating?" There would have been shifts in active agent ; he had simply handled Butch the list of what he wanted down, letting the selection of which agent would accomplish which task up the green haired man whose eyes now burned with an hunger for revenge.  
  
"Mondo is in Vermillion, investigating Surge's death. Domino is out at large, tracking down what she claim is an interesting trail. Agent Alpha and Agent Bravo also report they are on to something." A curious eyebrow or two raised in the room at the last. Alpha and Bravo were the two most secret agents of the team, placed were no one would find them, and reporting treasures troves of information to headquarters. Ash alone knew their true identities, all others had to make-do with codenames and - mostly very far from the truth - guesses. "Felicity and Ralph have reported something interesting within the old archives at the Viridian base, though."  
  
"What is it?" These two...they had been long time member of team Rocket, in the team before Giovanni even took charge. Yet they had been among the first to join Ash, just as Jessie and James - and Butch and Cassidy, for that matter.  
  
"I assume you have heard of the M2 project?"  
  
"Of course." The information, though hard to come by, had been pieced together thanks to the help of Domino, who had proven more than willing to cooperate after the defeat of Giovanni.  
  
"It would seem more than one sample of Mew genes were produced. Five of them, in total. Three were used in the Mewtwo project. The question is..." He did not have time to complete - Ash had already jumped to the question.  
  
"What happened to the other two?"  
  
__________________________  
  
"There's nothign we can do." Terrence Awlinson shook his head sadly. He was a doctor, not a miracle worker, but he knew few doctor - none at all, in fact - who would be willing to happily admit defeat in front of the enemy they always battled.  
  
The working colleague of the dying young man shook their head too, in shock. Few people, he had observed, were ever ready to hear that statement regarding someone they knew and respected - or liked, or loved.  
  
"Do you know at least what it is doctor?" The young woman had a tear or two running down her cheek.  
  
"Only suspicions. I assume you guys were working in the deep jungle?"  
  
They both nodded. It had not been very hard a guess, given the clothes they still wore.  
  
"We've had one or two cases recently of a seemingly new and very potent form of virus striking out in a part of the jungle. It causes most of the symptom your friend seemed to suffer from. The common link between these few cases is that all the victims were bitten by a strange-looking mosquito just before turning sick."  
  
"Bugsy complained about that...he even caught the little bugger..." The man suddenly talked.  
  
A surge of excitement flashed through Awlinson's mind. The opportunity to directly analyze the beast at the source of the infestation would tremendously improve their ability to treat it.  
  
"May I take the specimen?" He asked respectfully. They both nodded, of course. That was little surprise.  
  
An hour later, he was analyzing the strange bug, noticing a few very horrifying things with it. Three more, and he was done, scribbling down a three-copy report.  
  
The first copy went into his personal files. The second was sent by express mail to the Headquarters of the Indigo League.  
  
The third, containing certain details omitted in the second, was put in a carefully sealed envelope. The address to which it was sent was irrelevant to most extant - there was actually no one really living there. What mattered far more was the name of the so-called person who would receive the mail. There was no one by the name of Tracey Rablerton in all of Indigo. But the name, written in red ink, served only to hide the first letters of both first and last name, which would be all whoever picked up the mail would need to know.  
  
_______________________  
  
The command center was almost completed already. Many agents were sitting down in front of an assortment of control panels, listening to reports incoming from everywhere in the world. Gary and Misty, flanked by a trio of Black Talons agents, had joined them, watching the ongoing events.  
  
"Sir, something interesting." One of the man suddenly noticed. "There's been another victim of the Shianro virus."  
  
"Oh? Have they found anything about it yet?" He had been paying some attention to the strange new virus, wondering if it would turn in a dangerous worldwide outbreak or would stay confined to the small area in which it seemed to be taking place.  
  
"Yes, actually...the victim this time was an entomologist who captured a specimen of the bug behind the transmission of the virus. They have analyzed the bug at the nearest medical center, research headed by..." The man's face broke into a grin as he heard the name. "Terrence Awlinson. I think you'll get a complete report on what's up on your desk soon, boss." Inside Team Rocket proper, Awlinson was one of the few well-known figures. "Victim is..." The grin vanished, leaving place to a bleak face. Misty and Gary noticed it, their mind already drawing links. "Victim is Tsukushi Takenaga, famous entomologist - and Azalea Gym Leader."  
  
"Shit." He heard someone says, summarizing pretty well what he was thinking.  
  
"Bugsy?" Misty's stunned voice broke the silence a few seconds later.  
  
"Yep. It might only be an accident though." Gary cautioned. "I mean, bugs are fairly dangerous on their own, without any murderous help..."  
  
"Taken on their own, each of the events so far can be taken as an incident. It's when you put them together that things starts looking bad. We don't dare not making the link." Butch opposed. "Get agents to check the mailbox on a double-basis. We don't want to miss Awlinson's report." He had turned toward one of this underling.  
  
"And double the guard around Gary and Misty." The last was Ash's own command. "Same things as last time. If anything happen to them, whoever let it happen will wish they were dead." Compassion in the current siutation would endanger too much.  
  
He could only afford to be harsh. 


	5. 

With one final push, Pryce reached the top of the crater, watching the land on the other side, that which no human before him had seen, or if they had, they had never told anyone. It was a spectacle beyond belief. Within the rim, tall spires of pure crystal rose toward the sky, beautiful, like a thousand swords of ice rising to claim the heavens.  
  
There seemed to be a noise behind him, but that was impossible. After all, he was the first one - the only one - to make it here, to watch the beautifully stunning scenery.  
  
He smiled again, admiring, feeling the world around him, the peace. The cold was nothing, not with what his eyes could see, not with what his ears could hear, the enchanting voice of the wind in the world all around.  
  
There was no warning. The cliff gave way under him, becoming a sharp slide from what it had once been, a stable, even platform.  
  
He screamed as he fell back, toward the mist of the cold valley, but his scream was cut short as he realized that the crystal spear were nothing less than the vapor of the air, in contact with the cold, icy ground of the volcano, freezing at astonishing speed. Before he could scream again, he was entombed in ice.  
  
_____________________  
  
Jasmine yawned, driving her car behind the enormous van that made its way forward slugishly. She wished she could already be in her gym, but instead she was stuck on the road, behind a massive truck. It was, to put it mildly, frustrating.  
  
The voice on the radio was droning on about the recent death of Bugsy. Even thought the death sounded natural, it was just starting to be too much of a coincidence, all those members of the league falling one after the other, all of them to their own elements.  
  
Their own elements...  
  
She took a look at the truck ahead, confirming the worse of her fears ; it was loaded with steel beams. A coincidence, maybe, but...  
  
She started moving her car right toward an exit, even though it would take her completely out of her road toward Olivine. Her car reacted, with a seeming slowness she had never felt before driving the vehicle...  
  
Whether or not the car truly was slower than usual, it was too late. A steal beam broke free of the truck suddenly - she could have sworn she saw flashes of blue light around the cable holding it before it did - and rushed toward her own, breaking the window to her left. She had no time to react, the beam crushing her skull, breaking her neck.  
  
Out of control, her car crashed in the fence on the side of the road, exploding in a ball of fire soon after from the leaking fuel.  
  
_____________________  
  
Brock was in the middle of Pewter, helping out with the construction of a new section to the old, often overcrowded pokemon center, when the earthquake began. Realizing the potential for disaster, he was also one of the first to rush for cover, under a wooden doorway made of solid tree trunks. There were no rocks near him, thus there was no danger of his falling like the other gym leaders. He had not needed much time to put two and two together, to realize the gym leaders were dying one after the other to their element.  
  
The ground calmed down rapidly, however. It had, after all, it seemed, been only a minor shake, nothing worth worrying about, after all. His death, it seemed, was not yet to come.  
  
"Let's finis this folks!" he called out, going back to the last few touches.  
  
A sinister cracking noise rang in the air. It was too far from him to be a menace to him, but out of habit, he looked around, and found fond the source.  
  
A huge stone carving of a onix, on a pillar in the middle of the center, had seemingly come lose during the earthquake, and was about to fall. He was too far from it to be hurt...  
  
But the local nurse Joy, however, wasn't. He didn't even hesitate, his instinct winning over his reason in the blinking of an eye. Jumping forward he pushed the Nurse to the side, and was the one to take the blow as the heavy piece of marble fell on his back, crushing his spine.  
  
_______________________  
  
"That's a fine one we got here, dear." The old man turned toward Whitney, smiling, pointing at the Tauros. "Wil' be good for breeding." He pushed the beast as Whitney smiled in turn.  
  
Yet, even as she smiled, she felt uneasy, a strange feeling that she shouldn't be around the animals at this point in time, not given what was happening, all the deaths she had heard about for gym leaders. Still, she couldn't leave, not in the middle of one of her few private moments with her grandfather. But still, she wouldn't remain there for any longer than she had to.  
  
"Can we please go back now gramp?" she asked. "I...don't like being here...with all those gym leaders dead..." She glanced uneasily at the Tauros. They were, she was convinced, a menace.  
  
"Worried about tose, dear?" He asked back, grinning ."Sure, et's go bak." He started leading her off toward the house...  
  
One of the tauros broke free, rushing at her. She sidestepped, letting it crash into the fence, sending one of the log spinning wildly, but not hurting Whitney. She breathed a sigh of relief, turned back just as the sound of rushing hoofs rose again from the direction she now faced...  
  
She could do nothing to avoid the Miltank. The creature's head was hornless, of course, but she understood in the moment of contact that the horn wouldn't bring about her death, and neither would the hoof. As the head pushed her forward, she found herself brought violently in contact with the sharpened end of the massive piece of wood that had once been part of the fence. The sharpened stake ripped through her, impaling her, leaving her no chance of survival.  
  
Her horrified grandfather moved toward her, even as in a final moment of clarity the goal of the murderers became obvious to her.  
  
"Got to warn them..." She whispered, dying "Ã‰chel..." She never finished, her ability to speak deserting her before death slowly claimed her.  
  
_______________________  
  
"I wonder why everyone's so afraid." Claire turned to look at the valley below. Everything seemed so fine with the world, why would everyone be as afraid as they were, all the other gym leaders persuaded death was coming for them.  
  
Only coincidence. After all, there would be no point to murdering the gym leaders. Who would waste their time killing people whom they had no interest in killing?  
  
She smiled, and the smile was still on her face as her mistake became fully apparent. The beast jumped out of nowhere, closing its jaws around her neck, ripping it apart. It was not a pokemon, or at least none she had ever seen before, seemed like an image brought forth from a storybook, but it definitely was far more than that, far more alive than any image, she felt that much in the moment of bitting.  
  
She died slowly, given full time to regret her refusal to believe in the warning of the others.  
  
_______________________  
  
Erica had carefully withdrawn in the depths of her stadium as news of more murder had become apparent. It was the only place in the world were she felt safe, especially with her attendants around her, ready to protect her.  
  
"I wonder how many more will die today..." She asked softly, not to anyone in particular, her eyes peering at the ground.  
  
"None, we can hope." It was one of her attendant, wearing like all of them the usual kimono.  
  
She felt a slither of movement behind her, a slither of noise in the grass bushes...another in the grees above...  
  
Creeping vines flashed out of everywhere at once, ensnaring her attendants, holding them within their grasp as they struggled to get free. The last vine was for her, she knew. She resigned herself, realizing that there would be no escape, even in this safest of place. The vine snapped around her neck and rose, and she controlled her reaction to struggle. It would be useless.  
  
Her death was painful, took time, but at least once it was done with, she would no longer have to fear the murderer and his attacks. She would be free...  
  
Her attendants would at least be able to say that she died smiling.  
  
_____________________  
  
The two rocket agents moved silently in the elite four building. They had been ordered to get at least one member of the elite four to safety, away from the attacks, which, all of the Rocket command authority was slowly becoming persuaded of, targeted not only the gym leaders but soon would take on the elite four.  
  
"Why pick Bruno, though?" The woman questioned, pushing a strand of golden hair.  
  
"Because he's the only one who holds relatively alone and far from the security system, to train privately." Her partner answered, his voice bleak.  
  
It was not long before they ran in the colossus of a man that was a member of the Elite Four. His strong muscles seemed impervious to any form of attack.  
  
They both drew their guns, aimed, and revealed themselves.  
  
"Sir, if you'd please follow us..." She offered, smiling. There was no use in being rude, or any such.  
  
"Do I have any choice?" he replied, apparently deciding not to resists. The walk toward the outside of the Indigo headquarters wasn't long, soon they were there, by the cliff, moving toward their helicopter on a small private landing field.  
  
And everything went wrong. Her partner seemed to go insane, delivering a powerful chopping blow to the neck of the giant, who, despite his size, shuddered and collapsed at the lethal blow. It was almost surprising that it would take so little to bring down such a giant, but the blow was a killing blow for all, Indigo elite member or simple janitor.  
  
"You fool! We weren't supposed to kill him!" She yelled, but efore more could be done, he turned on her, aiming his gun. She couldn't, wouldn't believe it, but yet he found somehow the ability to do it. The bullet flew out with a loud noise, digging deep inside her.  
  
_____________________  
  
"No way..." Gary was, from looking at him, just as breathless as Ash was, as Misty was. They all were, the young leader of Team Rocket reflected somberly. They had seen the strikes of their opponent, quickening in pace, but to hit seven - no, six - gym leaders and one member of the Elite Four within the space of an hour?  
  
That was horrid. There had been no official announcement of the events yet, but it was entirely too easy to piece together by tapping in the communication between the various police forces, panicked calls from city to city, and toward the league headquarters at Indigo.  
  
"I guess they found out the gym leaders were beginning to get the point. They didn't want to leave them much more time to think." He grimaced, his eyes filled with disgust.  
  
Misty had fallen back on a couch, in a state of stupor. She opened and closed her mouth, but no sounds came out, as if she could find nothing to say.  
  
"And we're out of gym leaders, now." Jessie pointed out somberly. James nodded ; so did Butch.  
  
"And..." James started to say something, was interrupted.  
  
"Sir!" A man came in. "We picked up interesting information from the Goldenrod police communications!"  
  
"What is it?" He whirled to face the communication officer.  
  
"It seems that Whitney understood - to an extent - what was going on. Before dying, she asked that the gym leaders be told that it was all about "Ishel"".  
  
"That means nothing...closest word I can think of is Ã©chelle, a french word for ladder." Butch pointed out rapidly.  
  
Ash, however, was thinking. Why would Whitney bring up as the last clue to those she believed to be behind the attack a French word that made little sense...  
  
Unless she hadn't have the time to say the full word. Which, given the description of her death, made sense. Very much sense. And, if that was so...  
  
"No way..." He breathed, his face turning a pale white. Everyone turned toward him, curious looks on their faces.  
  
"What is it Ash?" Gary's eyebrow shot up.  
  
"It's not Ã©chelle, or any such." He breathed. "The word she was trying to use is echelon."  
  
Jessie, James and Butch's faces remained curious, not understanding. Gary and Misty, however, understood, and the shade of their face was as pale, if not paler than his. 


	6. 6

"What is Echelon boss?" Jessie finaly asked, her tone slightly worried, as was to be expected given that she had observed his face already.  
  
"The Echelon system, in a nutshell, is the nuclear array of the United Leagues." Though the question had been meant for Ash, Gary was the one who finally replied. His voice, still carrying the shock, bore testimony to the horrors both he, Misty and Ash had just seen unfolding in their mind.  
  
The room went deathly silent at the words, all movement stopping for a second. They too, those who had not known at first, saw the horror before them. The images of a scorched wasteland, the threat of a nuclear winter, the horrible fate of those who had met in the far gone past with the deadly power of those weapons.  
  
The fleeting moment of silence went by, lasting only a second by the watch, though a century to their dreaming minds.  
  
"No way..." The voice was Jame's, though in a tone Ash could not remember hearing in recent days - not since James had joined his side against Team Rocket. It was a weak, pathetic tone, the tone of a defeated man.  
  
"But what does it have to do with the murders of the Gym Leaders?"  
  
"It's relatively simple Butch. The Gym Leaders each have to enter their own access code for the nukes to be fired, along with Lance and the Elite members." Knowing the answer beforehand, of course, did no good for Ash.  
  
"But killing the gym leaders..."  
  
"Open up the possibility of needing far fewer codes. Think about it. They couldn't create a nuke arsenal and then leave it weak to the possibility that a gym leader would die without sucessor and thus make the system impossible to use."  
  
"That makes sense." Of course it did. But making sense or not, the idea opened the door to a dangerous can of worms. One which Ash couldn't help but wish had remained closed.  
  
"Exactly." Gary picked up, earnign himself a grateful look from Ash, who let himself fall back into his chair, frowning deep in thought, considering the situation, the options they had. "So, they have every gym leaders wear a life monitor system in permanence." Showing them his left arm, Gary held very visible the little bracelet there, locked around his wrist. "If the gym leader dies, the central system stop receiving our signal. Therefore, they free the spot on the computer for the future gym leader, and until he is selected we need one less password to activate the Echelon system." He finished his explanation, leaving them all deep in thought.  
  
There had to be a way to find in time who was trying to seize control of Echelon. To find them, kill them, and potentially deactivate Echelon while they were at it. Only, none of them seemed to have the least bit of an ability to find it.  
  
"How much time do we have left? For all we know, Lorelei and Lance are in this together..."  
  
"As much as we need . Misty and I are still alive, after all." Gary replied. How naive, Ash couldn't help but think. How naive, and ultimately foolish.  
  
"How long? As long as the killer's out there, we are at risk. They have shown twice they could take on Team Rocket. The third time may just be the leathal one." Butch voiced out loud the very thoughts running through Ash's mind. They were once more silent for a moment.  
  
"Then we have to draw them out, and defeat them." The voice speaking had a new steel in it, as if, the week stone of the last few weeks finally washed away by the storm, the solid core was finally shining through.  
  
"Misty's right."  
  
A soft thud on the door cut short further discussion. The man who entered wore the black uniform of a Rocket elite agent, though it was not one of those Ash was familiar with. Instinctively, he reached for the pistol in a holster at his belt. Jessie, James and Butch probably had just done the same, though he could not be sure, not without taking his eyes away from the man.  
  
"Sir, you should turn on the television." The man's eyes remained locked on him. His hands, within sight, were empty. "President Stevens and minister Silph are about to make an announcement." Relaxing slightly at the words, Ash nonetheless kept his eyes on the man until he was safely out of the room.  
  
"Gary?" His friend was already moving toward the remote control. A moment later, the screen flashed as the main information network of the United Leagues appeared. A moment later, the logo of the television network vanished, replaced by the main audience room of the presidential palace of Indigo City.  
  
The two women standing on the stage waiting for the beginning of the conference were a study in contrast. To the left, president Agatha Stevens, her frail body hiding an ever-burning inner fire which only her eyes hinted at, wearing her solemn black clothes. To the right, dressed in gray, state minister Lorelei Silph, in gray, her face still unlined, her thirty-four years of age less than half the eighty-two of her companion.  
  
The clock over his desk ticked, the arrow turning to point at the massive twelve sitting on top of it. In the far-away room, there was silence as the newsreporters waited for the speech to begin.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen." Finally, it started. President Stevens was the one talking, while minister Silph simply waited by her side, a folder in her arms.  
  
"In recent days, the United Leagues have been the target of an unprecedented number of attacks, by unknown forces." Neither weakness nor frailness appeared in her voice. The strength there, just like the fire in her eyes, belied the apparent weakness of her aged body.  
  
"While we are determined to seek out and prosecute those who dared to attack us in such a way, this is not the point I wish to talk about. I am here to reassure the populations of Johto and Kanto that we are not going to fail in our duty. We have already launched the process of the selection of the new gym leaders, and the first few should be announced later tonight, as soon as our field representative complete their mission."  
  
She smiled. "Thus, the cities of Cinnabar, Vermilion, Fuchsia, Azalea and Cianwood should have a new gym leader tonight. Tomorrow, we should be able to announce new gym leaders for Saffron,..."  
  
The speech went on, as the camera panned across the room, showing a handful of other news reporters.  
  
"Ash! Can you do an image freeze with those?" Gary's sudden question was more than enough to surprise him.  
  
"Sure." Picking up the remote his friend had discarded, he did just that.  
  
"Good."  
  
"What's wrong?" The question, which could have come from any of them, was finally asked by Misty.  
  
"That guy there." One of Gary's finger reached out to point at the screen.  
  
The man in question looked for all the world like a normal cameral holder for the news crew of the various channels present there. Only, there was something wrong with him...  
  
"That's no camera." Butch pointed out. "It's one of those camera-like stun rifle they were experimenting with. Absolutely silent, and extremely efficient for sniper job."  
  
"You're kidding." Again, Misty was the one who talked. "The security forces wouldn't let him in..." Her protest, however, felt on deaf ears.  
  
"Gary?"  
  
"Butch's probably right. I met that guy a few time before. He's a sniper for Force Zero, the army's crack commando strike team."  
  
"Butch..." An horrible thought crossing his mind, Ash turned toward his lieutenant, praying he was wrong. "Correct me, but...aren'T those stun gun delivered with the direct notice 'do not use against individuals suffering from heart weakness'?"  
  
"They are." The bleakness of the answering voice made the words all the more terrible to hear.  
  
"Damn!" We need to do something!"  
  
It was too late for whatever they could have done, if indeed there was such a thing, which despite Jessie's words Ash felt sure there was not.  
  
The moment Gary let go the screen freeze, switching from the recording being generated in their massive computers back to the real-time feed, there was no longer doubt it was too late. President Stevens, in the middle of a word, suddenly collapsed, clutching at her chest in pain.  
  
"Get a doctor someone!" With the cry, Lorelei went down to her knees, not weeping, but rather, trying to take care of the fallen woman.  
  
But she couldn't do a thing, and just like them, was not given the time. Before any doctor could move in to take care of the sudden hearth failure of the leagues president, the armed shape of soldiers appeared from all doors, securing the room. They blocked the door, even though she screamed for them to get medical help.  
  
And on the other side of the television screen, there was nothing any of them could do but watch in horror.  
  
The sound of the news crew was still fully functional, allowing them to hear her desperate pleas for help, and their denial, on the ground that there was nothing anyone could do but make sure the murderer did not escape. Try though she might, even showing them the president was fainted but not dead, Lorelei could not convince anyone.  
  
And what she could try to do was so much more than what Ash could, feeling powerless, helpless, sitting on his chair unable to do a thing as the world turned to hell around him.  
  
"Minister Silph, please follow us. We'll take you to safety." A higher- ranking member of the military strike force moved in. Though he had not threatened, his weapon was still aimed not at the room in which the murderer had been, but at Lorelei herself.  
  
"No. I have to say a few things to the people." She seemed suddenly far calmer. "We need to show them that we will not be weak, even if they are trying to kill us." Calmer, and stronger too, her voice now filled with steel.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to take such a risk, when it is needless. Vice-president Gray is on his way to address the situation, therefore there is no need for you to risk your life."  
  
"But..."  
  
"I'm sorry." The second I'm sorry might not have been a command, but by the reaction of the troops nearby, it certainly seemed like a pre-set code. They formed up in a tight group around Lorelei, escorting her off stage, through a tightly guarded door which led further in the presidential palace.  
  
It took barely a few more minutes for Lance Gray, vice-president of the United Leagues, to arrive on the scene of the drama. He knelt respectfully before the body of the president, which had been moved to a quickly arranged table of sort, then turned toward the assembled and shocked news reporters, none of which had even commented so far on the events. It took quite a long moment for Ash to notice, a few steps behind Lance, a man in a military uniform of dark gray, and a moment more to identify him as General Will Arkonen, chief of staff to the Indigo military and second only to the now-dead defense minister in control of the armies - to the defense minister, and, of course, the president.  
  
"My fellow citizens." He began his speech. "It is with a heavy heart that I now stand before you. WE have taken today a grievous loss, which makes the pain of the last few days ever harder to bear. But let me assure you, my fellow citizens. This loss, and those of the last few days, will not go unavenged. I promise to you."  
  
The words were stirring, Ash had to admit. Had he not deeply hated the man for his views on power and how it should be used, he would have been drawn in, had agreed to whatever Gray had ordered toward the apprehending of the murderers.  
  
"To that end, however, we must seize the murderers who even now hide in the civilian population. We must root them out, and I am afraid that this will require sacrifices from us all. In a situation of crisis as we now face, personal liberties must be given freely so that the safety of all can be ensured." It was a brilliant speech, there was no question about it, but the point toward which it lead, far from brilliant, was entirely too distressing.  
  
"Therefore, in orders to pull the cover from the faces of those who now threaten us, I must now declare martial law throughout the states of Johto and Kanto. The army will now be in charge of ensuring order. And since we have every reason to believe they were deeply involved in the murders, the group known as Team Rocket will be their primary target."  
  
The speech went on, detailing the new laws, but Ash did not listen, simply staring at the screen numbly, trying to adjust to the new situation.  
  
And to try to think of an alternative to the only way out of the current situation he saw. 


End file.
